City in the Community (CiTC), the charitable arm of Melbourne City Football Club, are delighted to be participating in Festival23, a football and social impact summit during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Festival23 is a Football for Good event, to be held in Sydney during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Over 8 days, Festival23 will bring together 70 young female delegates from more than 40 countries, and 2,500 young people from Australia, the event celebrates the transformative power of football and aims to leave a lasting social legacy for young people across the world.
Driven by the power and inclusive spirit of women’s football, Festival23 will be an opportunity to create awareness and tackle critical issues facing the world, with programs dedicated to advancing the United Nations Global Goals focusing on gender equality, climate action, inclusion, as well as youth employability and diversity. To address them, the event will deliver a number of capacity-building workshops, immersive cross-cultural activities, world-class forums, and a fair play football tournament.
Josie Mirarchi, Community Programs and Event Coordinator for CiTC, and Asma Mirzae, a former CiTC Young Leader and the co-founder of Melbourne United, a grassroots volunteer led football club based in Cranbourne with a focus on multicultural women and girls, will be representing City in The Community as part of the weeklong summit.
I’m so excited for the opportunity to represent CiTC and Melbourne City at this summit. The opportunity to learn from other young women around the world around how they run football for social impact initiatives will be terrific, whilst also sharing knowledge about how we run programs in Australia.
Josie Mirarchi, Community Programs and Event Coordinator at CiTC
Asma has seen firsthand the benefits of football can have for women and girls in her community.
Through Melbourne United and with the support of Melbourne City, we have been able to break down barriers to ensure young girls and women (irrespective of their background, age or ability) in the South East are afforded the opportunity to not just play, but also pursue careers in football.
Asma Mirzae, former CiTC Young Leader and co-founder of Melbourne United
Head of Community at Melbourne City FC Sunil Menon said ‘As one of Australia’s leaders in sport for social impact, CiTC is delighted to be working with Creating Chances on Festival23.
Football has the power to inspire and change perceptions, and the lasting social legacy of this tournament will be the connections formed at events such as this. Learning from and sharing our knowledge with Football for Good experts will allow our staff to build on existing programs at City and continue to empower better lives through football.
Sunil Menon, Head of Community at Melbourne City FC
Festival23 will take place between the 6th and 13th of August 2023 at Sydney Academy of Sport, Narrabeen.
For more information, please visit the Festival23 website.
